Sometimes getting older just sucks.

Your energy levels decreasing. Your sex drive shriveling up and blowing away. Your hormones out of whack. A youth-crazed society trying to tuck you under the rug so you don’t remind everyone that their time on Earth is limited.

Wrinkles and an increasing perception of mortality…

But physical downsides aside, one of the biggest fears people have as they age is the fear of losing their mind. It’s one thing for to be sick or feel like your body is falling apart. Horrible, no doubt.

But When the Mind Goes, What’s Left?

Are you even yourself anymore?

Existential questions aside, we all have our senior moments, even the youngest among us. And as you age, these moments of forgetfulness feel more embarrassing and worrying than ever.

Just like you can take the right moves to strengthen your body and fight off the effect the years have on your physical condition, you can take measures to preserve the state of your mind. By doing so, you can increase the quality of life and stay useful well into your later years.

How?

I Present The Mind Workout

Your brain is vastly complex, sure, but when it comes to increasing or preserving its power, the secret is simple…

Use it.

Why not put together a routine you can perform once a day or a few times a week to get your brain functioning and make the most of its power?

Doing so can even expand the brain powers you have currently – if you’ve never fully taken advantage of them, this can open up whole new worlds of life experience.

9 Mind Exercises to Include in Your Brain Training “Routine.”

Here are a few brain strengthening activities to consider.

1. Counting Matches

Take a box of matches and pour them out on a table. Then pick them up, one by one, and place them back in the box. One at a time. With the match-heads all pointing in the same direction.

This is a real exercise in attention and focus.

2. Multiply Numbers in Your Head

Improve your visualization, organizational, memory, and problem-solving skills by doing math in your head.

Start by multiplying 2 numbers at a time. Then work your way up to 3 or even 4.

3. Learn a Language

Language-learning is thought to be one of the most powerful ways to strengthen your memory and your brain. And you’re never too old to learn to communicate.

In fact, learning new languages can be a great hobby to combine with exploring the world after retirement. With a new language under your belt, you can peek into different perceptions of the human experience, collect new experiences, and create new memories.

Also all good for your brain.

4. Read, Read, Read

Can you think of a more enjoyable way to strengthen and preserve your cognitive processes than getting more serious about your book-reading?

You may want to turn your reading into a study. Challenge yourself with harder subjects and books. Try choosing an area of study and focus on it for a couple months or even a year, taking notes and actually learning the material as you go.

5. Take Up Writing

Writing puts the brain functions associated with reading on steroids. Consider starting a blog, penning some short stories, keeping a journal, or even finishing a novel.

6. Take Up Math

You probably hated math when you were an antsy kid, full of energy and hormones and jumping in your seat to get outside and do anything but sit inside a stuffy classroom talking numbers.

But math is great for your brain, and you might find it more enjoyable to do now that you’ve grown up and mellowed down.

There’s something special about working on a complex problem for hours and finally “getting it.”

7. Memorize Your Surroundings

Improve your memory and powers of observation by closing your eyes after walking into a room and then trying to recall everything you saw, being as detailed as possible. You could also do this by freezing a scene in a movie.

8. Play Games

Whether chess, video games, or scrabble, playing games can be a great way to strengthen different mental functions. Focus on one type of game to learn the deeper thought strategies involved and reap the rewards.

9. Memorize Words, Poems, or Quotes

A great memory-building exercise is to memorize a few lines of written word every day. This will also make for some interesting conversations when you bust these out in day-to-day life.

Your mind is a beautiful thing – don’t let it go to waste!